Pilots in charge of the U.S. Navy’s E-2C Hawkeye saved the day on March 18, 2016 as they managed to keep the plane airborne after arresting gear snapped aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
A video, part of a Navy report, has now been obtained by The Virginian Pilot through the Freedom of Information Act and shows exactly what happened on the flight deck when the cable snapped.
Human error and improper maintenance were blamed for the mishap which resulted in various, non-life threatening, injuries for eight sailors, The Virginian Pilot reported.
The report, however, did laud “phenomenal airmanship” by the Hawkeye’s crew. While they do train for eventualities like these, the pilots can be said to have both saved their lives and prevented the loss of a plane, which, at one moment in the video, disappears from the screen as it almost falls into water.
Once the cable snaps, sailors can be seen running across the deck, possibly trying to escape the dangerous cable that damaged two other aircraft aboard the carrier during the incident.
As reported by the news agency, the investigation found that the maintenance personnel missed “critical steps” while working on an arresting gear engine.
The E-2 Hawkeye is the Navy’s all-weather, carrier-based tactical battle management airborne early warning, command and control aircraft. The E-2 is a twin engine, five crewmember, high-wing turboprop aircraft with a 24-foot diameter radar rotodome attached to the upper fuselage.